8r4d According to the sacred violinist’s lore one must change one’s strings with care and regularity. Prolific players may need to change their strings every six to nine months. Moderate players like me should change their strings every twelve to eighteen months. Occasional players may wish to only replace strings every couple years or as required, because it’s not cheap nor trivial either. I last replaced my strings about five years ago… or in a timeframe clearly in breach of the sacred advice of internet #violin experts. Probably should have got on that sooner, huh?

8r4d Another day, another sky full of #firesmoke but RM messaged mid-afternoon and figured we were sitting at about the clearest it was gonna be for a day or so and would I like to get my daily #running done? So I drove to the south side and we tried out a 9k from the starbucks in the smoky air with some thunder cracking off just outside the city. Some trails, some suburbs, some asphalt, some sun…all good.

8r4d I was kinda hopeful that I would need my #firesmoke hashtag for a few weeks yet, but yet again the pall of burning forests in the north squashed my relatively wee & insignificant #running plans. I was all set to crank out a 12-15k long run this morning (because of scheduling issues for tomorrow) but woke up to a haze and all sorts of cancelled races. I scaled back and just added to my gauntlet in north riverbend instead of a longer adventure.

8r4d Day 10 of my month of #running streak was pretty mundane compared to our adventure yesterday, with just a few more clicks of gauntlet running around the hood. Fortunately the sun was shining. Unfortunately the summer heat has come with it. Great for the flowers and sunbathers, bad news for long runs.

8r4d Fred was hanging out in a park near the river valley on the north side of town. #buggyland

8r4d Our regular Thursday #running meetup was quasi-hijacked because LG’s new house sits right near some fancy #rivervalley trails and he was itching for us to come check them out. My ninth run of May turning into a bit of an adventure run then. We crossed the river and back on two different bridges, found a spring, and meandered along some familiar trails we had run on racers or adventures past.

8r4d Day 8 of daily #running and we joined the running room #runclub again for some mixed training. A couple hills then a as bit of easy running and nothing too complex in the sunshine.

8r4d A seventh day in a row of #running let me out in the #rain even tho I held off a few hours hoping against the forecast that it might have let up a bit. Actually it may have gotten a bit worse.

8r4d My plan failed. That’s to say, my #running plan for today on this my sixth day in a row of May run streak, was to ease off the gas and do a nice moderately paced recovery run. Best laid plans? I set off to run some of the neighborhood gauntlet and feeling good my pace just built and built until I was going a really solid clip. On the second pic (the orange trend line is one I drew over the screenshot) you can see the increase in my pace over the 30 minute run. Again: best laid plans.

8r4d An afternoon #walk on #whyteavenue resulted in some interesting sights in #yeg #shopping #bubbletea #cake #bakery

8r4d Our regular Sunday #running adventure took us on some familiar but rarely run routes this morning. I hit 18k on the nose for the day and the total for my first five days of May, five for five, was a little over a marathon and a few steps short of 43km (shorting myself at a calculated 42.99k on the week!) A nice big hill at the end bogged down my time tho. And we did kinda stop once to assure ourselves that these dumb geese crossing the busy road made it safely.

8r4d Big green Hugh has lost his footing at the bottom of the hill. #buggyland